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A couple weeks ago I received a very odd email from a sender I didn't recognise. It was a humorous little note about a missing brain, an international search party and a remote beach in Mexico. I'm a big fan of creative writing so even though my anti-virus program flagged it as probable spam, I considered it a gift. It was written in the form of a press release making me think it might be the first part of a marketing campaign.

Quickly losing interest
A couple days later I got the exact same message again. This time I gave it a closer look. Except for the sender's details, nothing in the email gave me a clue where it had come from or why it was being sent to me. There was no "Unsubscribe" link. The following week, I got the same email, yet again. I had a look at the domain used in the sender's address which belonged to a professional services company in Canada. Nothing on the site explained the odd message I was getting.

Irritated into action
I couldn't figure out why a professional services company in Canada would be sending me unsolicited emails in Australia. Irritated, I replied to the note which, on reflection, was a bit curt.

Dear XXXX, This is the 3rd time I've received this same exact email. Will you please remove me from your list? There is no way on the note to Unsubscribe. I don't remember subscribing to email from you in the first place. Cheers, Sarah

I did feel like I was doing the right thing by writing to the sender and not reporting them for SPAM. Two days later, the same email appeared in my inbox but I was too busy to worry about it at the time. Five days after I sent my email, I received the following reply.

Dear Sarah, This is simply my vacation autoresponder and because I receive your blog by email, you receive the autoresponder. It's truly unfortunate that in this day and age people jump to conclusions about bad intentions – as is so clearly demonstrated from the extremely abrupt tone of your email – as opposed to seeing the more innocent explanation. So no – you didn't subscribe to anything and I certainly don't have a habit of spamming. As I often use autoresponders when I am out of town, the best solution for you at this point will be for you to remove me from your list so that I don't disturb you with them in the future. Thank you. XXXX

I was taken aback. My three sentence request was met with a fair bit of defensiveness. There was nothing in the four emails I received to suggest it was an "Out of Office" notice. I have an automatic subscription service for my blog so I'm not always aware of all the names on the list. I should have left it at that but I didn't.

Not everyone appreciates free advice

I wrote back, apologised, and said I truly didn't understand the intent of the note and it would have been helpful if the title had an "Out of Office" tag on it somewhere. I shouldn't have bothered. I received a lengthy reply telling me, explicitly, that I was stupid. Evidently dozens of other people applauded this creative approach to business communications. A prediction was made I would go broke since I was so unsuited to my own profession I couldn't recognise good marketing copy when it landed in my inbox.

Also evident was the holiday in Mexico hadn't worked very well. Needless to say, the name came off my list.

Sticks and Stones

But here's the thing; my intent, however abrupt, was an honest attempt to let a small business know they had a problem. When it was obvious I had caused offense, I tried to correct it with an apology and a suggestion on how the problem could be prevented in the future. I can't help but feel the reaction I received says a lot more about the sender than it does about my intellect.

The Take-Away
I think we can all agree it's never a good idea to insult potential clients regardless of the reason. It's an especially bad idea to do it in writing. (And, no, I will not "name and shame" so don't ask.) The bigger lesson is that the original email didn't effectively communicate what it needed to. While it was mildly amusing the first time I received it, by the fourth time I was having a total sense-of-humour failure. Sadly, the author put a lot of work and creativity into it but missed the mark by leaving out 3 little words, "Out of Office".

I would say this is a classic case of marketing communications working against you. What do you think?

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*Image courtesy of Kiva.Dang, on Flickr